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Perhaps one of the messiest times in American history is the 2016 Presidential Elections. The two deciding factors in the elections are the public votes and the Electoral College which was described as a ticking time bomb.

Frank Newport from Gallup describes the most prominent characteristic the last election as NEGATIVE – everything about it was negative, both the electoral candidates and the election process, especially, when some Americans gave a dissatisfaction rating of 68% for Trump and 48% for Clinton – marking one of the worst ratings for any presidential candidate in history.

Even the online community is raging on and on against the electoral qualification of Trump and Clinton. Hollywood celebrities have launched attacks on the Trump campaign machine, calling for national unity.

Hilary was not exempted from the hot chair as WikiLeaks had provided ‘leaked’ emails of Clinton such as Bill Clinton Inc., her terrible instincts and decision makings, the Bill and Melinda Gates conspiracy, a covert Syrian action and her involvement in some FBI issues.

Future elections may become riddled with small satisfactory ratings and issues – reducing the whole election to a dance of clowns, coupled with an enormous amount of voters boycotting the entire system might as well end up deserted.

Another factor which gave rise to the worst of controversies is the result of the electoral college. Andrew Prokop of Vox explains why the electoral college is the absolute worst. First of all, it seems unfair since popular opinion greatly differs from elite opinion. And second is that a few incompetent electors can hijack such an important vote.

Perhaps the 2016 elections can give rise to a couple of negative future attacks on the electoral college. A few others even question the need of such a system, since the electoral college directly attacks the right to vote and decide for government positions.

The winner of popular vote losing the election has renewed calls for dumping the electoral college system – affecting even the media. During the campaigns, a lot of public distrust has been placed on popular media providers like CNN and BBC, giving rise to a lot of conspiracy theories and misinformation.

If there is one word that should be highlighted from the last elections, it is the word TRUST – mistrust, distrust, trustworthy – you name it, it all boils down to trust. Although the future has taken a new turn, it doesn’t always mean that it’s moving on in the right direction.

The loss of public trust has fanned the flame to call for change, both from the outside and the inside. However, it is no question that some positive things came out despite those turbulent times such as the raise of minimum wage for some states and the election of Llhan Omar as the first Somali-American legislator. Nevertheless, Americans still believe in the hope that as long as the country is united as one, the American dream is still alive – there’s nothing that can bring us down.

Health care is a right that every responsible government owes to its citizens – irrespective of the status of the citizen. I have taken a look at what is on the ground and my conclusion is that things are not going in the right direction. The government is adopting lots of measures here and there, but it seems all efforts on their part to fulfill their civic responsibilities all went down the drain.

I have sat and pondered on why the government, after massive sincere investments in the sector is not getting it right, I realized that there is a glaring shortage of doctors as well as dentists and nurses, yet the citizens are still paying a huge bill on health care. There is a misplaced priority on the part of policy implementers for the government in the health sector.

I looked into the books for a period spanning over three decades with the U S as my point of focus; the results l got were lopsided. Over that time, the number of administrative staff has grown 25 times more than the number of physicians! Can you imagine that degree of lopsidedness?

People are paying more for health care service; but in the real sense, they are only paying for the salary of the administrative staff! Without the medical personnel, what then is the use of administrative staff? Can you see where the problem lies?

The chief reason why the government is not getting things right can be attributed to the activities of private health care practitioners. As the health cost soars, it brings higher profit to these private health care professionals. One of their primary goals is profit, with the present situation, the pendulum is swinging in their favor, and hence, they wanted it to continue for eternity.

My findings on these private health care practitioners show that they are doing everything possible to frustrate the right intentions of government so that their hold on the health sector will continue. For them, it is a brisk business. I bet you can now see and understand clearly the crooked policies of government on the health sector.

The set of people involved is very powerful and influential individuals; this makes it more difficult for the government to deal with them. They maintain a huge presence in any government that comes to power; they are what l call sacred cows in the society. They have succeeded in pocketing the health sector for their selfish gains and interests.

There is an outside reason that is responsible for the failure of governments to get it right in the health care industry. Some citizens still believe that universal health care is evil. They refuse to register for it and therefore put spanners in the works of policy implementers. Cause I can tell you that the government won’t be on the cutting edge of the best nootropics of 2017 or be helping people try or help you in finding the best wrist wraps of 2017 to help improve people’s lives. Why? Because this isn’t the role of the government but if health care was privatized again it could and probably would be.

The powerful special interests which also include the drug companies, as well as medical equipment suppliers and insurance companies, will make all the efforts on the part of government futile. That is the stark reality.

My candid observations on a final note are that the terrain is too murky. Cost effective national health insurance coverage will not be easy considering the intrigues currently in place in that sector.

The term ‘fake news’ has been trending all over the web and it’s almost depressing. Adding and twisting information for the purpose of sensationalizing has slowly become a threat to democracy— this statement has been repeated numerous times for many months in preparation for the US Presidential campaign. Media has finally conceded the power it holds over its audience and its role as a tool for mind conditioning.

Aidan White’s 2017 article, “Facebook and Matters of Fact” in The Ethics of News, connotes that news journalism is now being used as a means to communicate inaccuracy and misinformation. News becomes a platform of intellectual persuasion. It was evident in two recent and popular issues – Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, there has been loose access to classified documents subject to various interpretations depending on who interprets it.

“The free circulation of malicious lies, the ineffectiveness of fact-checking, the resilience of populist propaganda, racism and sexism and the emergence of the so-called post-truth era appear to challenge a fundamental cornerstone of ethical journalism.” (White, 2017) We cannot say exactly what the motivations of modern and digital media are but there seems to be an obvious clue why this is happening.One theory could be the connection between communications media and the permeation of advertising into daily living.

The impact of media in the succeeding generations since the invention of television is staggering. Visual persuasion has heightened with the introduction of smartphones, mobile devices, and different applications. These persuasive messages are inserted in commercials and regular TV programming. Media studies refer to this as influence attempts (Everyday Influence) and because media has become a routine in the 20th century, the brain easily gets used to being infiltrated by these attempts.

Advertising is an unlikely culprit. It is described as “a means of communication for a product, service or idea” where it conventionally serves as a method for product endorsing. Advertising might be the means, but its power to persuade is its secret weapon.

Persuasion continues to permeate the system leaving marks of it in print and visual media until it invades traditional, visual, digital, and social media that attracts us, its audience. This is where persuasion influences the news transforming it into a method of endorsing an idea rather than dispatching information. This defeats the real purpose of news. Steve Andriole of Forbes Magazine compared and contrasted mass media since the 1950s and compared it to how then-Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump used media to his advantage. Objective truth is reduced to numbers and becomes a creation and consumption of alternatives fact. It’s similar to the truth being translated and gets lost in translation along the way. It’s similar to saying that traffic tickets in Springfield, Missouri are somehow influenced by anything other than people are breaking driving laws, it’s not true and the truth gets buried from consumers. The line between real and fake news has been blurred because the so-called “authorities” of truth are driven by potential monetary and power gain.

The biggest threat to authenticity is the question of accessibility, which is the essence that makes news or information authentic. The accessibility makes anyone express their opinion and create a spontaneous discussion that could lead to major questioning or even doubt. “Decades ago the reach of the truth-versus-falsehood debate was limited to those who studied the differences and the majority of the population who “watched.” A few decades ago the debate was small and therefore manageable primarily because the information itself traveled much more slowly.” (Andriole, 2017)

It’s not about searching for the truth, but more of recovering the truth. The truth has been manipulated in more ways imagined for less than noble reasons. It may take a little moderation for people to be contented with where they stand, media-wise. Until then, any information will continue to unravel and will be unstoppable. Much like how people want to know the actual truth on things that affect their lives, like if they have an STD (speaking of if you think you have an STD then check out STDAware testing/clinics close to me) and other issues that thrive on needing to know the actual truth so you can do something about a situation if needed, the American people need and deserve to know the truth from the media so that they can make the same decisions about issues that related to their life.

The Consumer Confidence Index is based on the survey of 5,000 households in the USA. It is conducted by the Conference Board, and it aims to measure the attitude of consumers in the current or future performance of the economy.

When the index is low, it is expected that there is an increase in spending. But when the index is high, there will be an increase in spending on goods and services. Consumer confidence is an important indicator of the economy since consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of gross domestic product.

Meanwhile, consumer confidence measures a wide range of consumer attitude. This includes expectations of the general economic situation and household’s financial positions. It also includes views of the consumer on making major household purchases such as a brand new house and a car (and car insurance of course).

The US Consumer Confidence Index for December 2016 surged almost four points to 113.78, which is the highest level in more than 15 years. People felt better about the economy and a lot of it has to do with the change of leadership. Companies are bringing home the jobs in the United States, and this is probably because of President Donald Trump and other factors.

President Trump in the rise of Consumer Confidence Index

There is suddenly more hope for Americans these days. Consumers express optimism regarding the outlook for business, jobs and personal income prospects. Their assessment of current business and labor market conditions have improved considerably.

Consumers and businesses feel current economic conditions have improved over the recent period.

For one, small business owners look forward to the possibility of tax reform. Second, they look forward to business friendly policies and renegotiating trade deals. Lastly, they look forward to expanding energy production as promised by the Trump administration.

Other factors on Consumer confidence

On the other side, consumer confidence is also based on several factors and not by President Trump’s promises alone. You can see this when you look at the auctioneer market. According to Foreman Auction Group which are known as the top rated auctioneers in Springfield, MO, they say that you can see the temperature of the economy by how many people are showing up to auctions and what prices are going for.

It must be noted as well that falling confidence could be a symptom of recession and not the other way around; just like in 2008 financial crisis. Meanwhile, a fall in consumer confidence can lead to an increase in savings. When confidence returns, people may spend these savings on items they have delayed buying.

Also, a decrease in confidence may cause firms holding back on investment. But, in the future, this could lead to a mini-boom in investment as all the delayed investment comes back into the economy.You can also see the confidence increasing with the rise of more review types of websites hitting the market everyday. These can be things about portable basketball hoop review & best in ground basketball hoop sites all the way to new car types of review sites. A great indicator that people are buying more things and thus having more confidence.

In a nutshell, Consumer confidence is only a survey and people may become optimistic or pessimistic for reasons not related to a change in economic fundamentals or even the change of leadership such as the reign of President Trump. However, let us make these indicators a challenge so Americans can live a better life in the next years to come.

Before you hire a travel vacation information website designer for your website, make sure that you’ve taken all necessary steps to guarantee you the desired result. Your traffic will go sky-high if you employ good analytics. You will see a big jump in your visitor traffic when you apply these tools. The general rules below are designed to maximize your efforts to attract new visitors to your webpage.

You have a lot of potential sources for images to include on your travel vacation information website. Choose carefully to make sure the images you pick make your website visually appealing. You can harvest royalty-free images from dozens of sites on the internet. Make sure the images you choose relate well to your content. Many times you can get images for free from sources by writing some unique content that people are willing to offer you images to be used in your article. So for instance if you sell Disney World vacation packages you could write an article about Disney World tips, tricks & hacks or an article about the top Disney podcasts where people can find more info for their trip. Then reach out to some other sites that have images you would like to use and ask them if you can use an image of theirs for an attribution back to their site.

Inspect patterns in your industry to determine what substance is most reasonable for your travel vacation information website. You do not ought to be a world-class writer to develop your own content, but you do need to write from your own unique perspective. Search engines love fresh content, so you should plan to upload new material every few days. If you are not a talented writer, or are too busy to update your content regularly, hire one of the freelance writers you can find online to do it for you.

Your sign-up forms ought to be easy to complete for just about any web user. Customers making a purchase will need to register for an account first and provide specific contact and billing information. Even though many people may resist registration, make it easy to do so in several places on your webpage. Think about offering special gifts to anybody who chooses to register an account, and possibly provide a gift to referral customers that also choose to join.

Make sure you budget funding for the services of a respected web server for your internet business. Paired with a great server, you may also need to contract with a professional hosting firm, that could ensure your webpage is novice-friendly and optimized for search engines. Should your host organization not have the best possible innovation, your webpage, as an outcome, will probably encounter frequent issues. If your webpage experiences long load times or maybe a bevy of problems, you need to think seriously about switching web hosting businesses.

Having a page that loads rapidly is key to keeping visitors engaged on your travel vacation information website. Most people spend ten seconds or less on a single website, so you certainly do not want to provide them with reason to leave your webpage any sooner than they normally would. Two of the best tricks for cutting page load times are eliminating graphics that do not complement your content and compressing the images that remain. Using a devoted server can additionally give your webpage more of a speed boost.

Education is one the best contributions that America offers to the world. The United States is where many of the most excellent institutions of higher education are located. The US primarily boasts of its Ivy League.

Despite being home to some of the best academic foundations, the education system in America, in general, also receives its share of criticisms and disapproval.

The problem lies in the issue of these best scholarly institutions being too expensive for the average American to afford. How then shall the progress of the general public take place, if America only educates the affluent class? Where does the average American stand if they have the intellect but not the financial capability needed to obtain the good education that their own nation is very much capable of providing them?

Even more, where does America rank in education? How does the education system in America compare to those of other countries?

The Education System in America: When We Make it all About Grades

How does completion of studies work in an American school?

Comparing the education system in America to that of the United Kingdom, we do not have a standard national curriculum that all schools, colleges, and universities have to follow. Hence, students are not prepared enough to take national examinations.

American students aim to obtain a high school diploma, after which they may choose to pursue a higher education. They then take the national SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) to get a score that is good enough to get into their priority choice of institution.

Basically, American students’ academic strengths and intellectual capacities are gauged by way of grades in the form of numbers, letters, and SAT scores. Community work and involvement in athletics are also significant factors for them to be accepted to their desired university. Some institutions also further assess applicants through standardized college aptitude examinations, including the foundation subjects of language and literature, mathematics, social sciences and current events, and logical reasoning.

Fast forward to years and years of hard labor at the University; students are handed their final academic evaluation in the form of their transcript of records. This transcript contains their grades and awards if any. Their transcript and their diploma are already an achievement after having completed higher education, whether or not they graduated with flying colors.

After that, the question of employment arises. In a nation divided by social classes and status, where the bias toward blue-chip universities is rampant, how does the average American degree holder ever manage to fare well in the job market?

Where Does America Rank In Education: The Decline of American Education in Global Rankings

Private organizations release university rankings on either a quarterly or yearly basis. The results vary from one survey company to the other. Therefore, these rankings are deemed very subjective. They also classify their rankings according to the field of expertise, and there is also the valuation of certain countries’ education systems in general, and not only their performance per college or university. This is where the countries’ rankings jumble and reshuffle.

Despite this, these rankings still make for a rather fair assessment measure for nations to use to evaluate and reevaluate their education system. America is not entirely behind, but the likes of Finland and Japan manage to fare better, owing to the unconventionality of their approach to educating their young citizens. Not to mention children today are taught nothing about education in regards to healthy living and leading a healthy lifestyle. Even helping kids who want to weight train to find perhaps some products that have been voted best wrist wraps of 2017 or the best knee wraps for squats in 2017 that can help them prevent injuries and be healthier. Even helping them know how to cook and eat healthier foods would be a good start.

It is not, however, too late for a thorough study to restructure the education system in America, where and when it may be needed. This is not an easy feat. We cannot just walk into the Department of Education and request a major change in the system; it just does not work that way. After all, in education, there is money at play and a large amount at that. In many cases, education in the United States means business; that is why it is all about the scores and grades.

We may never know the exact level of division, but understanding the nature of division among the American society is a crucial step towards creating a more inclusive and progressive society.

In what ways might America be divided?

Socio-Economic Status and Education

Education was once upon a time a ticket to success, which used to involve advancement up the socio-economic ladder.

Now, as the United States continues to disintegrate in so many ways, it seems like the situation is the other way around. Education of excellent quality in America can make for a great foundation from which you will be able to build a career to make it skyrocket. That is a vision fueled by ambition. It is a clear-cut representation of the great “American Dream.”

To earn a degree from a recognized academic institution in the US, however, will cost you a large sum of money. Graduating from a university seems to be catering to the affluent, and the less wealthy end up under a pile of student loans which they will have to pay for using their first month’s’ earnings from a job that is not even guaranteed yet.

These days, the problem lies in that you first need to come from money for you to obtain a good education.

Race

The United States is a massive melting pot where people of different shapes, sizes, and colors, from diverse ethnic groups and heritages, and with very distinct backgrounds, come to meet and try their luck at the American Dream.

The American population is composed of people of various racial descent who are supposed to have come to meet on the US soil to unite and not to instigate such a great collapse. We may be from different bloodlines, but we are ultimately Americans. At the end of the day, we are supposed to work hand in hand and not aim at each other’s neck. Sadly, that is just not the situation in reality.

Culture and Subculture

The co-existence, which is not exactly harmonious, of numerous cultures and subcultures, are also contributors to the great American divide of today. You can tell this divide by something as simple as some people out there think owning a top self defense knife or researching otf knife reviews makes them a terrorist and should be prosecuted, while others think that is just a simple and normal thing that everyone should do.

There is the dominant ruling culture whose members have significantly immense power over the minority. To clear the air, the dominant culture in the American society does not necessarily equate to being bigger in the number of members. They belong to the ruling culture because they have the material wealth, the political power, and the advantage of belonging to a globally acknowledged religion, among many other kinds of edges over the rest of the ordinary citizens.

The American Dream Is Now Crumbling into the American Divide.

We are in a colossal discord. This disagreement may deserve a decent discourse more than being met with violence and wrath. The United States of America is definitely drifting apart, with the American Dream nothing more than a fantasy for the less privileged ones.

Just Exactly How Divided Is America in 2017?

The American people are in a very awkward situation. The factionalism is bad, awful even. We are helplessly watching America fall to bits, and at an incredibly fast rate. That is how America is divided now. What’s left to do is to determine steps on how to lessen this gap before it’s too late.

Tired of giving the same gift every year to your father? It is very hard to choose gifts for men as there is less variety than buying something for women. For me, it’s like I need to have a complete one day for selecting a gift for my dad. I already gave him things that are readily available and within my budget. This time it was very hard for me to find out the best gift for my dad, so I did a little research, and in this article, I am going to tell you about great gift ideas for Father’s day, so that you won’t have to suffer anymore!

Before buying anything make sure to check your budget, so that you can select the gift accordingly. Cheap or expensive, your gift should be as unique as your father. Until now, he had given you so much, so on this very special day, it is your duty to make him feel special. Give him a special gift as a token of your love.

Five Best and Unique Gifts for your Father

There are varieties of gifts to choose from so make sure to pick something unique and unconventional. Study his likes and dislikes and then make a list of gifts which you think he will appreciate. You can also ask help from your family members who knows him best like your granny or mother. The following are our suggested gifts that you can buy for your dad this Father’s day:

1. Stylish Watch

This is the most basic yet a unique and evergreen thing which you can give to your father. A man surely like to have a vast collection of watches. I have heard of Invicta watches. Your dad may appreciate a brand new stylish watch.

2. Beard Trimmer

I think this is one of the best gifts which your father would like to have. He can use it anywhere, anytime. If your dad likes to groom every day then giving this gift would be the best option for you.

3. Backpack

Is your dad a traveler? Then give him a nice branded backpack. There are so many good brands out there which you can go for. Make sure to choose a bag that matches according to his needs. Make sure to get his favorite color in the bags collection. I am sure he will be impressed with your gift.

4. Tablet

Carrying a diary is a thing of the past. If your dad is a business man or someone who is tech – savvy, then a tablet or something similar could be the perfect gift!

5. Book

If your dad loves to read then what are you waiting for? Head over to your nearest bookstore! Make sure to know the genres he prefers; you could also ask who his favorite author is, the best part of it is that books are precious and also budget – friendly.

Explore the things which you think your dad will like to have. Every day is special if you want to make it that way. You can also be a bit sentimental about it by give him card that says… “Dear Daddy, I may find a prince someday, but you will always be my King!” or something similar, make it as cheesy and sweet as possible! He will surely be touched by this simple gesture.

I am sure he will hug you right way because behind every great daughter/son there is an amazing dad!

Democrat Jon Ossoff came extraordinarily close to pulling off a seismic electoral feat Tuesday night in Georgia that would’ve been read as a brutal embarrassment to President Donald Trump.

But coming so close might’ve cost him a seat in Congress.

Although the top Democratic candidate for a vacant U.S. House seat in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District earned the most votes in the special election to replace former GOP Rep. Tom Price, Ossoff failed to clinch a majority of the vote. That means he’s been forced into an onerous two-month runoff campaign in which he’s bound to become a national target for roused Republicans.

As the Democratic Party works to remake itself amid the tenure of President Donald Trump, a timely test case has materialized in the race for Virginia governor.

Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, the originally presumed party favorite to succeed Gov. Terry McAuliffe next year, is no longer the lock for the nomination due to the blossoming candidacy of Tom Perriello, a former one-term congressman who’s embraced the idea that the primary battle is a proxy war over what the future of the Democratic Party should look like.

The Northam-Perriello contest – which will be decided in a June 13 election in one of the country’s most prominent political battlegrounds – will provide the first inkling of the party’s mood moving forward.

Democrats across the spectrum agree the race will be viewed as a national weather vane. But the exact undercurrents at play are in dispute.

About

The news is crucial as it helps us know and understand what is happening around the world. News has always been a way of life and created a huge impact in people’s lives. The world has since evolved from a traditional way of sharing news to the digital age where everything is done via the internet.